We've met his Hollywood counterparts many times beforethe movie producer juggling one cell phone call after another from the home office and location shoots across the world. He doesn't stop while driving and in his whirl he cruises many kilometers over the limit and is stopped by police. Gregoire, however, is French, a hotshot on the Euro scene, and his flying trapeze act also includes a lovely wife, a sulky but not unhappy teenage girl and two adorable younger daughters. His wife complains a little bout Gregoire's globetrotting workbut just a little.
So what's the story in Father of My Children? Director Mia Hansen-Love (All is Forgiven) shows how Gregoire's grace under pressure gradually deflates with the accumulation of bad news: budgets are out of bounds, bank accounts are empty, lines of credit have run dry, the tax office is freezing assets and everything he worked for is at the waterline and sinking. In Hollywood, the plot would have turned into an on-with-the-show tub-thumper, but instead, Father of My Children investigates the meaning of life and death, especially the realization that the flaws of one's personality don't necessarily nullify the accomplishments. Mostly in French with English subtitltes, Father of My Children is out on DVD.
